It turns out a trip to Carolina was just what the Oilers needed to snap their longest losing streak in three years.
A full 60 minutes is what got Edmonton there — as did goals from Adam Henrique, Corey Perry and with a second left on the clock, Evan Bouchard, as the Oilers are able to fly back home a little bit lighter.
“That would’ve been a long flight back if we lost that, but I think a lot of the guys should feel good about themselves, because they worked hard,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch.
“It was nice to get this one tonight.”
Nice is putting it lightly.
The Oilers hadn’t looked themselves in recent weeks, going 2-6 in the month of February and getting outscored 35-24. They opened the month with a loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, beat the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks in overtime, before falling to the Colorado Avalanche ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
Their run of poor play continued out of it, embarking on a five-game east coast road trip that saw them fall to the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals, Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers.
Against Florida, the team began to find their game, and were able to carry over successes from that loss in Saturday’s game.
“I think our work ethic, our hunt towards the puck, our details in terms of stopping on pucks and making hard plays,” said Leon Draisaitl when asked about what changed from earlier in the week to last night. “It’s a man’s game in here every time, this team plays hard and we knew that coming in. If you’re not ready for it, they’ll run you out of the building. We were ready for it, and played a good game.”
Coach Knoblauch echoed it.
“I think the last two games we did a much better job of digging in, competing a lot harder,” he said. “The battles we won were a lot better than what we had in the previous three games.
Henrique got the Oilers on the board 5:08 into the game, when he and Mattias Janmark got a break shorthanded. Rico drove to the net as Janmark threw a shot towards it pin balling off the crease crasher and in. More depth scoring came in the second when Corey Perry deflected a Draisaitl pass home.
As one would expect the Hurricanes didn’t roll over, pushing in the third period and scoring early on the power play. They continued to generate, and Sebastian Aho, who scored that goal, had a break away late that Calvin Pickard stood tall on.
Those moments aren’t always easy for a struggling team, Knoblauch said.
“We were able to keep the puck out of our net with Picks making some big saves, especially in the third period where you got a fragile team,” he said. “We have a lead late in the game, you haven’t won in a while, you tend to shrink. You don’t want to make a mistake, and you just end up defending all the time and it just allows the other team to just get more chances. I think that game will be very important for us to build some confidence.”
The Oilers will look to carry that momentum home, hosting the Anaheim Ducks Tuesday and Montreal Canadiens Thursday ahead of next Friday’s trade deadline.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.
